After going through all the alcoholic stuff we keep in our home bar, we’re finally on to the rest, the things that don’t have any ABV, but make our cocktails – well, cocktails. As always, this is by no means exhaustive, but it’s what we like to have on hand so we don’t find ourselves struggling to make even the basics.
Soda water: Singha
A good bit of fizz can really elevate a drink. Problem is, there’s a lot of bubble-infused water out there, and it can be really confusing to get the right thing. It took us a long time and lots of wasted dollars to figure out sparkling water by and large doesn’t work in cocktails.
To make a long story short, though, you’re simply looking for a good soda water with substantial carbonation. For the most part, it’s going to be the only source of fizz in your cocktails, so it’s worth getting something that’s really packing the bubbly stuff. Otherwise, you’d just be diluting your drinks with plain old water.
Singha is probably the fizziest option out there; we’ve even read about people leaving it out overnight and coming back to find it still bubbling. As a bonus, Singha is also one of the most wallet-friendly soda waters, especially if you have room to buy two or three cartons at once.
The glass bottles are a little annoying to handle versus other brands that come in a can, but it’s a minor inconvenience in our eyes.
Tonic water: Fever-Tree Refreshingly Light Mediterranean
Tonic water gets a bad rap. We’ve met too many folks who hate gin and tonics because they’ve had tonic water that’s neither here nor there: cloyingly sweet, combined with a medicinal, soapy flavour. And that, sadly, is the case for several tonic waters at the low-end of the price spectrum. (We’re looking right at you, F&N.)
While we’re always up for something cheap and cheerful, we’ve yet to find a super affordable tonic water we really enjoy. Fever-Tree is a step up in terms of price, but it’s also a big upgrade in terms of taste.
We particularly like its Refreshingly Light series, which dials back the sweetness of its regular range – with what they say is 40% fewer calories, if you’re counting.
The Mediterranean tonic water is our favourite, simply because it’s a good all-rounder that pairs great with just about any flavour profile. If you’re looking to use it in a simple gin and tonic, we find it goes best with citrus-forward and herbaceous gins, but you’ll get good mileage anyhow.
Ginger ale
We don’t often use ginger ale, except in the occasional Dark & Stormy, so we find keeping cans around a bit of a waste of good fridge space. We also find that, as with tonic water, most commercial ginger ales are far too sweet, with more of a candied ginger flavour than actual ginger spice.
Making a ginger ale analogue at home isn’t too difficult; it’s essentially ginger tea, sugar and soda water. We get ginger powder from Bentong, Malaysia, which is spicier than powders from elsewhere. Several sellers exist in Singapore, so it shouldn’t be too tough to find; ours comes from One Sunny on Shopee.
As for proportions, we like to make a super-concentrated ginger tea with two tablespoons of ginger powder and one tablespoon of white sugar, dissolved in just enough boiling-hot water to cover everything in a small cup. (Shaking the tea helps it infuse much more effectively.)
After that’s steeped for a long while and fully cooled, we top it off with a full bottle – 325ml – of soda water. If you’re planning to drink this as-is, we like a squeeze of lemon juice.
This DIY solution, unfortunately, doesn’t last for long, which we’ve learned the hard way; even in its powdered form, ginger is really prone to active fermentation. It’s best to make and use this within the night.
Citrus fruit
Citrus appears in practically every classic cocktail in some way, shape or form.
We recommend always having lemons, limes and oranges on hand – plus grapefruits, if you enjoy palomas or simply like your fruity notes balanced with more bitterness.
While you’re at it, invest in a solid vegetable peeler to get yourself some decent peels, and a good citrus reamer for juicing.
Simple syrup
You’ve probably seen the term “simple syrup” being thrown around in cocktail recipes a fair bit. Essentially, it’s a solution made of equal parts white sugar and water. There’s some debate as to whether you should go by volume or weight; we go with weight because that’s how we were taught.
Recipes call for simple syrup because it’s easier to put a drink together quickly with sugar that’s already dissolved. Having to get hot water, dissolve some sugar and wait for it to cool can take more than a few minutes, so preparing ahead can save a little time. It keeps for a couple of weeks, so we make enough to fit in a small squeeze bottle – 150ml of water with 150g of sugar – and store it in the fridge.
Herbs
When it comes to herbs, we recommend growing your own mint and buying the rest as and when you need it. Mint is extremely easy to grow – it’s even considered a weed in many places. We got our first cutting from the top of a cocktail we had in a bar, put it in water for a couple of days, then transferred it to a pot.
The other herbs – most commonly rosemary and basil – are a little trickier to grow, in our experience. To be fair, we don’t have green thumbs at all, so you might have more success on your end. If you can, it’s a good way to save a few dollars, so all the better.
Cherries: Griottines
We don’t like cherries in our cocktails much – especially not the unnaturally sweet, bright red, plasticky-tasting kind – but they’re good to have on hand if you’re making a classic Old Fashioned or Singapore Sling when friends come over.
We got our 1l jar of Griottines cherries for just under S$60; the cherries are good, and it’s a large amount; in fact, we’ve had ours for nearly a year now.
The kirsch liqueur solution that the cherries are soaked in is sweet, but not overly so. They’re pitted and stemless, too, so there’s no fuss involved.
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